Xbox One: Amazon US sells out of pre-orders, good luck buying one at launch

The Xbox One could be one of the hardest gadgets to find this Christmas following the news that Microsoft has confirmed to Pocket-lint that Amazon.com in the US has sold out of its pre-order stock already, five months ahead of the launch.

"The fact that we have Amazon [US] already sold out on pre-order, got a lot of people in the company excited," Chris Lewis, vice-president of the company's Interactive Entertainment Business for Europe, confirmed in a one-to-one interview with Pocket-lint. "We believe it is indicative of a pattern we are going to see for pre-order. I think that is very true for the UK and markets where we've seen genuine success over a number of years."

Microsoft wouldn't say how many units that pre-order allocation is.

The news, which will be a huge boost to Microsoft execs having dodged a series of setbacks about confusion over used games, ties in with stories whipping around the internet that the Sony PlayStation 4 has overtaken the Xbox One in pre-orders on Amazon.com.

These comments from Lewis suggests that the Sony PS4, while popular on Amazon.com, isn't as popular as thought against the Xbox One.

The Redmond-based company is expecting Amazon.com's stock situation to quickly follow suit around the globe, suggesting stock levels on day one will already be tight and demand high.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with Pocket-lint, Fergal Gera, Sony PlayStation's UK boss said that Sony expects to have plenty of stock.

"We've been really pleased with the boost overnight of pre-order figures of the PS4 following our E3 press conference," the UK boss told us again in a one-to-one interview. "We'll do our best to have plenty of stock for gamers in the UK."

The promising sales news comes as Microsoft details further information on its next-gen console launch and shows that the £429 price point might not be a problem after all.